


Orphan's Valentine's Day

by howardently



Series: Orphans. [3]
Category: My Mad Fat Diary
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-17
Updated: 2015-06-17
Packaged: 2018-04-04 19:08:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4149474
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/howardently/pseuds/howardently
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rae and Finn are really into each other and much cuteness ensues.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Orphan's Valentine's Day

“Well, Izzy’s all atwitter.” Rae announces, setting the phone back in its cradle with a sigh. She swishes into the room, her silk robe fluttering around her bare legs in a very distracting way. “She thinks Chop’s going to propose on Valentine’s day.”

Rae gives a soft chuckle as she settles on the couch beside him. Finn immediately pulls her legs into his lap and begins smoothing his fingers over the soft skin. He can’t resist her legs, can’t resist the allure of so much satiny skin to be touched. He’d chosen the robe for her specifically with nights like this in mind- the two of them together on the couch in his tiny flat, her in nothing but a vest top and panties and the short billowy patterned robe. He’d seen it in a shop window and had gotten a hard on. It meant going without the new Radiohead album for a few weeks, but it had been worth it.

“Well…” He leans in conspiratorially, ghosts his warm breath against the skin of her neck. “Don’t tell anyone, it’s a secret, but… he is.”

Rae gives a breathy groan as he presses his lips against her neck in a soft, wet kiss, and his cock twitches with the promise of what’s to come. It’s early still, they’ve ordered takeaway that’s yet to arrive, but that’s never stopped them before. Their physical connection is so powerful, they’ve spent nearly as much time shagging over the last few months as they have doing other things together. But Rae twists her head away, and the expression on her face tells him that her groan was not a sexual one like he’d hoped.

“You’re kidding! Please tell me you’re kidding.” She moans incredulously, and he shakes his head as he sits up properly, taking her foot into his hand and rubbing his knuckle into the arch. “Ugh. I thought he had better taste than that.”

“You what?” He stops rubbing her foot and drops it. He can’t believe she’d talk about Izzy that way. The two have become close since the New Year’s party. It’s both a comfort to him- Rae fits into his life so seamlessly, because he knows she’s meant to be his forever- and a source of constant chagrin. Izzy’s almost better friends with Rae than she is with him at this point, and he’s known Iz since primary school. He’s also got suspicions that the girls trade notes about how to get what they want from Chop and him, but he can’t prove it. He’s surprised and affronted that she’d react this way, like Izzy and Chop aren’t meant to be together, like the redhead isn’t good enough for his boisterous mate.

“No, no, no.” Rae soothes, reaching to rub at the furrow in his forehead. As much as he wants to push away, her touch is irresistible, and he finds himself leaning in. “You know I love Izzy. I just meant that I can’t believe he’d propose on Valentine’s Day. It’s so… ugh. Just ugh.”

Finn laughs and captures her hand as she starts to move away, pressing a kiss to her palm before returning to rubbing her foot. Rae settles a little more thoroughly into the couch, closes her eyes and gives a breathy sigh. He smiles- that one is definitely a little sexual.

“What’s wrong with Valentine’s Day?” He asks, though he suspects it’s not a subject that’ll enhance the mood he’s hoping to set. Oh well. They hardly have time before the food comes anyway.

Rae’s eyes pop open and she sits up, tucking her legs underneath her. “You can’t be serious.”

She tilts her head and lifts her hands in front of her, and he grins. He’d discovered the great pleasure in getting a rise out of her almost as soon as they’d started dating. She’s so passionate, so vibrant, so sexy when she gets all worked up about something. Her cheeks flush and her mouth goes a million miles a minute and she waves her arms in front of her. She’s so beautiful all flustered, no matter if it’s from his body moving against hers or from her mind frantically working to explain herself.

“Uh, Valentine’s day is a completely shite holiday that’s basically solely for the greeting card companies to make money. It’s total crap. Did you know that it basically celebrates a note some weird priest guy gave to his, like, child girlfriend the night before he was beheaded? Like, that’s what a valentine is.” Her eyes are narrowed, and her breath is coming just a bit shallowly, and Finn licks his lips. She’s all heated, and it’s warming his blood accordingly.

“Rae, it’s supposed to be a holiday about celebrating love, about taking time to tell people you care about them.” Finn reminds her gently, reaching over to run his thumb along her flushed cheek. He likes her rants, but he needs to keep her on track here, he’s got plans for their evening and they don’t include talking about priests who’ve been dead for a thousand years.

She rolls her eyes. “People can do that any day of the year. We should be doing that way more than just once a year on a stupid commercial holiday. Valentine’s Day is just an excuse to sell cards and flowers and shit. It’s mostly just to make single people feel bad about themselves.”

He laughs, and she narrows her eyes at him and playfully shoves his hand away from her face. So he tugs sharply on the leg that’s still resting in his lap, jerking her down until she’s lying across the length of the couch and climbing on top of her. He traps her beneath him, his bent knees pressing into her hips and his weight propped on his hands on either side of her head. He moves swiftly, and they’re both breathing a little heavier when he stills, though it’s more from arousal than exertion.

He bends down to rest his weight on his elbows to he can twine his fingers in her hair, eyes roving slowly over hear features. Her eyebrows are raised, her cheeks pink, her mouth tilted into a cheeky smile. He grins and runs his thumb across the side of her cheek, fingers still caught in her dark locks. He has to resist the urge to grind his hips purposely against her, but he wants the moment to be tender rather than heated. Well, maybe more like tender and heated.

“Yeah, but… you’re not single anymore, are you?” He asks, and watches as something simple and sweet blooms across her face, something he can’t quite name but looks a little bit like love. A lump forms in his throat.

He still hasn’t said it, though he’s now completely sure it’s true. He’s definitely in love with Rae. But something’s holding him back from telling her, some instinct that says it’s too fast for her, or maybe some deep seated fear he can’t shake. He thinks he’s just waiting for the right moment, but it seems to be building within him more and more as time passes. It’s like his body is getting slowly filled up, overtaken by his certain love for this beautiful girl, and he’s now starting to worry that it’s going to spill out when he’s unaware.

And he’s not sure of the reception he’ll get when he does say it. Things are going well with them, he thinks. They’re happy. And the way she looks at him sometimes… yeah, things are going well. But it hasn’t been that long and he doesn’t want to spook her, so he bites his tongue when he feels like it’s going to spill out.

So, he kisses her, hard. He presses his hips into hers, finally, and kisses her with all the love that’s built up but not expressed. He’s sure of her, sure of them, and he pours all of it into the kiss. Rae groans low in her throat, grabs onto the back of his t-shirt over his hips and tugs him closer, slips her tongue across his bottom lip. It’s so good with her always, like no matter what differences are between them normally, they’re always on the same plane when his lips are on hers. He has a moment in the blinding sweetness of her mouth, gone before he realizes it was even there, when he knows that she’s in the same place as he is, that her love is teeming just beneath the surface of her skin too. But it’s lost to the fire that ignites within him at the feel of her fingers scrambling at his back.

Finn slips his fingers from her hair and clumsily adjusts so that he can tug her robe open and run his fingers over the sliver of bare stomach between her panties and the hem of her tank top. She’s especially soft there, and especially sensitive, and Rae rewards his efforts with a soft mew and an arch of her back. He traces the line of her panties along her stomach, trailing his kisses along her jaw and neck to that he can better hear the sounds she makes. God, he loves the sounds she makes.

He’s just begun pushing her top slowly up her stomach and is considering bending to taste the sweet vanilla of her skin, when the doorbell rings. He abandons the hickey he’s just started to create, rests his weight over her for a moment as he groans into her neck. Rae laughs and uses the hands that were tugging him closer to gently shove him off. He rubs his face into the crook of her neck in protest and she chuckles.

“Do you want me to get it?” She asks, lust and laughter warming her voice so that he can’t help but smile. “Give the delivery boy a bit of a show?”

“No!” He protests quickly, jumping up. He stands over her for a moment, rakes his eyes over her where she lies languid on the couch. She’s so beautiful, so fucking sexy like that. Her hair is mussed, her cheeks and chest flushed a lovely pink, the robe is askew and her top hiked up so that she’s all pale skin. Her legs are parted slightly, and she’s giving him a warm, sultry smile. He stares, entranced, adjusting the uncomfortable erection in his jeans. The doorbell rings again, and Rae laughs as he swears and stalks off towards the door.

He pays the delivery guy, a scrawny spotted kid that he’s seen in the store a time or two. Rae saunters through the hallway, robe billowing behind her, and Finn laughs as the kid’s eyes widen. He looks at Finn with a newfound respect as Finn hands over the cash and accepts the food.

“You’re a lucky bloke.” The kid cranes his head, trying to catch another glimpse of the siren in Finn’s flat.

“Don’t I know it.” Finn raises his eyebrows and shrugs as he shuts the door.

He carries the food through to the living room, starts unloading the boxes onto the little charity shop coffee table in front of the sofa. Rae comes back in carrying plates under her arm and beers in her hand, and shoots him a cheeky grin.

“Just couldn’t help yourself, huh?” He shakes his head, rolls his eyes with fake disdain. In truth, he found her little display alarmingly adorable and insanely sexy. But then again, he finds most things she does that way, so he shouldn’t really be surprised.

Rae shrugs, still grinning, as she sits down next to him and takes a swig of her beer before setting the plates and bottles down. Finn leans over to steal a quick kiss- he can’t resist the taste of her with beer on her lips, it’s his absolute favorite thing in the world. She reaches up to touch his cheek softly, pats it with just a bit of force when he pulls away.

Finn busies himself unloading the rice and mu-shu pork onto her plate, beef with broccoli onto his. Rae fishes underneath the cushions for the remote and unwraps the flimsy plastic flatware. She flicks on the tv and flickers through the channels until she finds an old movie, and Finn hands over her plate with a smile. He holds onto the plate for just a second, and they sit there staring at each other and grinning like idiots, both so happy to just be together.

He almost says it then, almost gives in to the insane desire to toss the food on the floor, tell her he loves her and then jump on top of her.

Instead, he lets go of the plate and reaches to shove a potsticker in his mouth. Anything to keep the words in. He turns toward the tv, brows furrowed to repress a scowl. He’s such an idiot. He should just say it. What’s the worse that could happen?

She could run screaming from his flat. She could calmly explain that she does not love him, she just likes fucking him. She could get that wide eyed terrified look she gets sometimes and then just disappear, stop returning his calls. She could put on pants.

So, yeah. He won’t say anything just yet. Not until he’s sure she won’t go running off. It’s only been six weeks. He can wait. Just wait.

“So, I take it you like Valentine’s Day, then?” Rae says, and he turns to find her giving him a teasing smile around a mouthful of rice.

“S’pose so.” He says, and she gives him a deliberate eye roll. “What?”

“Well, you would, wouldn’t you? I doubt you’ve ever been single on Valentines in your life. It’s probably all snogging and cutesy cards for you.” She turns back towards the TV, and he watches as she takes another sip of her beer. He doesn’t say anything, and after a minute, she turns back to him with an apologetic shrug.

“No.” He concedes, deciding her smile is sufficient apology. “I… Nan was always my Valentine. She loved it, always made it a special day.”

He smiles down at his plate, remembering going to the chemists with his Dad and pouring over the cards until he found the perfect one for her, usually one with a little animal on the front, or a cutesy pun. Nan loved puns, she always used to make the worst jokes and laugh wildly when he groaned.

Rae sets her plate down and puts a hand on his knee. “How’d she make it special?”

“Dunno,” he shrugs, suddenly embarrassed for no good reason. He shifts the food around on his plate for a minute before setting it down and reaching to twine his fingers with hers. “She’d always get me a card and a box of those little heart candies. The gross ones. You know what I’m talking about?” Rae nods, and he grins, absently smoothing his thumb along the back of her hand. “And they’d always be on my plate at the breakfast table, right there when I woke up. It was just… nice, I guess.”

Rae hums under her breath, smiles at him and picks up her plate.

“Didn’t your mum do anything like that for you?” He asks, feeling a bit bereft without her hand in his. She shrugs at the TV and doesn’t look at him as she replies.

“Nah. She never really remembered about stuff like that.” She doesn’t look at him, but he can feel the sadness lurking just underneath her affected indifference. He frowns. She’s got all these undercurrents, all these things that she tries never to show, but he always notices. He hates that she doesn’t want to him to see that she’s been hurt in the past, doesn’t want him to see all the places where her skin isn’t as tough as she wants it to be. But he gets it, and he just wants her to be comfortable with him, so he tries not to pry.

“Yeah, I always hated it at school though.” He offers, deliberately turning to the screen with an exaggerated scowl. He can feel her eyes on him, but he doesn’t look. “I never got any valentines or anything. I was a right ugly kid.”

“You what?” She laughs, and he can’t resist turning to watch her face light up in humor. “You’re so good looking, I can’t imagine you were ever ugly!”

He tries to tamp down his grin, but her offhand compliment warms him from the inside out. He obviously knows she’s attracted to him, as they can’t seem to keep their hands off of each other, but it’s nice to hear her say it like it’s nothing, like it should be obvious.

“No, I was!” He laughs, a smile overcoming him. “Really ugly. No one liked me.”

“Yeah right. I don’t believe you.”

“You don’t believe me?” Rae tilts her head, gives him a cheeky ‘nope,’ and he stands up to lean over her. He puts a hand on the couch on both sides of her legs, leans in close to her face. “Fine then, I’ll show you.”

Rae tilts her face closer, like she’s going in for a kiss, but he rises abruptly with a wicked smile. She scoffs, and he chuckles as he walks the few steps through the hall towards his bedroom. He quickly scans the bookshelf and grabs a photo album, then returns to sit beside Rae on the couch. She finishes her beer and sets the bottle down as she reaches for it and sets it in her lap. Finn scoots closer to flip through the pages, settling on a grainy photo of him as a boy, sitting in Nan’s lap. Rae touches the picture with a single finger, caressing the tiny face of miniature Finn.

“This is you?” She asks, voice soft as she stares at the picture. He nods. “You were ugly.”

He laughs brightly, shocked and delighted at her teasing. He tries to pull the album from her hands, but she giggles and hangs on. “Hey!”

“I’m not done looking at it!” She protests, and he relents, leaning back and putting his arm around her.

“This is your Nan?” Rae asks, her voice soft. Finn nods and leans to rub his face against her shoulder. “She’s pretty. She looks kind.”

“She was.”

Rae continues flipping through the album for a bit, her fingers tracing over pictures of him tenderly. “I hated Valentine’s Day at school too. The kids were always mean to me. I never got any valentines.”

“Never?” He asks, and she shakes her head, still flipping through pictures. “You’ve never had a valentine?”

Rae shakes her head again, closes the album and moves like she’s going to get up, but he hangs on to her arm to keep her on the couch.

“Hey.” He says gently, pleadingly. Rae tries weakly to pull away, but he doesn’t let her go. He shifts so that he can nuzzle her neck a little and whisper in her ear. “You have a valentine now, Rae. But that doesn’t matter, cause it’s all bullshit anyway, right?”

Rae jerks away with a laugh, shoves him slightly. “You’re such a dickhead!”

“You’re the dickhead.” He places a palm on her bare thigh and gestures with the other hand towards the food still littering the coffee table. “Are you finished eating?”

“S’pose so. Why?” She lifts a shoulder, trying to fake casual, but betrayed by the smile flirting at the corners of her mouth.

“Because, Miss Earl, you have been sitting here for over an hour with no pants on.” He hasn’t eaten much, hasn’t even finished his beer, but he’s done with the dinner portion of this evening. It’s time to get back to what they started on the couch earlier.

“And does that bother you?” Rae tucks her chin, biting her bottom lip and fluttering her eyelashes at him. If it were someone else, it’d be silly, too much a caricature of flirting. But with her… it’s adorable and alluring all at once. She even lifts a finger to her mouth, runs it along her lips. Finn swallows.

“Oh, I am definitely bothered.” He runs his palm slowly up her thigh, grinning at the hitch in her breath.

“Well, what are you gonna do about it?”

They lock eyes for a long minute, and Finn swears he can feel the temperature in the room rising. Rae lifts her eyebrows and cocks her head, challenging him, and he lets out a low growl. The TV is still playing, there’s the smell of cooling Chinese food in the air, but everything seems to fade away until it’s just her, just them. It’s what he lives for, these moments where nothing exists but the two of them. They had to adjust when classes started, learn to balance their new relationship with life outside the bubble of the two of them. But it’s nights like this, when there’s nothing to prevent them from sinking in to each other, that make the rest of it worthwhile.

Rae jumps up abruptly and takes off running towards the bedroom, a peal of laughter trailing behind her. She only makes it a few steps before he takes off after her.

“Get back here, and I’ll show you!”

++++

Every single guy in this store looks pathetic. They’re all frowning as they read through endless greeting cards, scratching their noses and rubbing their necks as their eyes scan over red foil hearts and pink glitter adorning little squares of paper. It’s like the mass exodus of the whipped all corralled together in the card aisle at the chemist’s near campus, jostling and shuffling for position as they shoot shifty, embarrassed looks at each other. It’s pitiable.

And he’s one of them, one of the stupid boyfriends all frantically searching for just the right sentiment to make their girls want to shag. Ugh.

He can’t help but groan at himself. It’s only been a couple of months since he was free and single and scoffing at all the poor sods who had to work so hard to keep a woman in their lives. He’d dated with a carefree vigor, never worrying much about what anyone thought, breezing from girl to girl without a second’s regret. And now here he is, among the cattle he’d looked down on with such pleasure. He shakes his head at the monstrosity of glitter and hearts in his hand.

But Rae’s face from the other night flashes through his mind, the soft sultry grin she’d worn after he’d caught her around the middle and pressed her into the bed. That perfect, gorgeous sexy smile that’s captivated him completely since Christmas. He’s totally at her mercy when she smiles that way, and he’s sort of fine with that. Sort of fine with joining the ranks of the pathetic.

Because now he can see something in all these poor blokes that he’d never noticed before. They all look vaguely embarrassed when they catch someone’s eye, but when they’re looking down at the cards and thinking about their girls… they’re different somehow. Easier, maybe. He knows he’s different than he was before. It’s like all the pieces of him that were missing have filled in, like he’d only discovered that he wasn’t whole before now that she’s filled him in. And things are easier, even though they’re harder in a lot of ways too. But it’s easier to handle the hard stuff when he knows that Rae’s only a phone call or a pop-in away from kissing him sweetly enough that he forgets all the garbage. Getting to lose himself in her makes it better when he’s by himself.

It’s a rueful sort of pleasure, finding the right card for her. He’s been here almost an hour already, and he’s got a couple of solid contenders. It’s hard, though. All his Valentine’s experience is from choosing cards for Nan, and it’s not like he can give Rae a card that says Have a Dino-mite Valentine’s Day. And he can’t choose one that says he loves her, even though he does, because he hasn’t told her that yet and he say it for the first time on a bloody card. A lot of them are filled with sappy poetry, and he knows she’d hate that, so it’s been hard to find the right card.

And he’s got to get it just right. It’s her first real Valentine, after all. It’s got to be perfect.

He’s holding two cards, one in each hand, debating between them when he catches a flicker of shiny black from a little further down the aisle. Finn glances up and sees the squat redhead next to him holding a card that’s made to look like the familiar pattern of vinyl. He watches surreptitiously as the guy reads the inside of the card and twists his mouth thoughtfully, then taps the card against his palm a few times. The redhead glances over and sees Finn staring, gives him an empathetic shrug once he sees the cards in Finn’s hands. Finn nods, ducking his head to hide his blush. He watches the redhead out of the corner of his eye, hoping he’ll put the card down and move on. He’s got a hunch that the guy’s holding the card, the perfect one, the one that’s meant for Rae.

Finn picks up a card he’s already read, just so that the guy beside him doesn’t know that he’s still watching. The redhead hangs on to the card, picks up another one nearby and flicks through it. Finn scowls down at the card in his hands, it’s got a big cartoon bear on it. Rae’d hate it. It’s the card that idiot’s got that she’d like, he knows it. Finn needs that card. How can he get that guy to hand it over?

He debates his options, making sure that he’s lurking nearby the squatty bloke in case he abandons it. After ten minutes, Finn’s considering just grabbing it and making a run for it. But the redhead is chuckling as he reads another card, and finally… fucking finally, he sets it down. Finn grins and starts to creep closer, ready to snatch it as soon as the other guy moves a little further away. He doesn’t want to get caught having spent the last ten minutes following that guy, he’s been patient enough already, he can wait another thirty seconds. But then a new guy walks up to the card aisle and stands close to the squatty one, and Finn’s had enough.

He briskly strides over, leans between the two guys and grabs the vinyl card. The redhead shoots him a condescending smirk, and the new guy an affronted scoff, but he’s beyond shame now, so he just raises his eyebrows at them and shrugs. “Cheers.”

Finn waits until he’s two aisles away before he slows his near-jogging and stops to look at the card. It’s a muted shiny black, embossed with the ridges and grooves of real vinyl. There’s a red circle in the center, where the album label goes that reads ‘FOR THE RECORD’ in chunky white block letters. He runs a finger over the grooves before he opens it. Inside, in plain black script, it says ‘You rock my world.’ He can feel the corners of his mouth lifting in a stupid grin.

It’s perfect. Simple, sweet, music related. It’s exactly the right card for Rae.

Thank God he doesn’t have to go back to the card aisle. That would be humiliating. He saunters off to the register, inordinately proud of himself, totally fine with being one of those pathetic blokes buying a card to keep their girlfriend happy.

++++

Valentine’s Day is on a Tuesday, and they both have classes on Tuesday, so they make plans to have lunch rather than the typical dinner date. Rae’s remained adamant that she hates Valentine’s day, and that she doesn’t want to celebrate it at all, but she’d agreed to lunch with only minimal persuading.

He’s nervous about giving her the card. She’s given him two more lectures about the stupidity of the holiday and how in olden times they’d whipped women for increased fertility and how idiotic it was to celebrate that. He’d made a joke about spanking her for virility and she’d offered a cheeky reply, and it had all ended pleasantly and sweatily in the tiny bed in her dorm room. But as the day has inched closer, some of Chop’s frenetic anxiety has rubbed off on him and he’s grown increasingly worried about it.

What if she really doesn’t want to celebrate it? What if she doesn’t like the card he picked? What if she laughs at him and thinks he’s stupid for getting her a card when she so clearly thinks it’s all bollocks?

He’s been trying not to let his doubts get to him, trying to remind himself that he’s doing something good, showing her how he feels for her. He’s trying to do it for Chop, too. Finn’s spent so much time on the phone with Chop over the last couple of days, listening to Chop rehearse his speech, reassuring him that Izzy’ll say yes, fine tuning the timing and restaurant and outfits… He feels like he’s turning into a teenage girl. He wonders when he turned so soft and romantic and shit. He knows he definitely wouldn’t have had patience for that kind of stuff this time last year. Rae’s ruined him, really.

They’ve chosen a casual little restaurant just down the street from campus, and he’s walking briskly towards it, just having finished his morning class, when he sees the makeshift flower shop. It’s just big buckets filled with colorful bouquets and a harassed looking Indian guy, but he finds his feet slowing as he approaches. There are roses in every color, or course, but Finn finds himself drawn to a small bunch of white daises. They just look like her: open and cheerful and bright, different from the crowds of roses.

“How much?” He asks, fingering the yellow centers of the flowers. The vendor looks him over for a moment, then shrugs.

“Five quid.”

Finn pulls some wadded bills from his pocket, and the man wraps the flowers in brown paper and a ribbon. Finn gives him a closed lipped smile as he takes the flowers, awkwardly holding them low at his side as he walks the rest of the way to the restaurant.

He pauses as he approaches, tucks the small bouquet carefully in his bag and adjusts his fringe in the big window out front. He’s nervous again, stupidly. He always gets nervous right before he meets her or picks her up for their dates. He reminds himself that she’ll be happy to see him, pulls up the memory of her beaming smile and sweet greeting kiss. He straightens his shoulders and opens the door.

The hostess gives him a flirty smile as he enters, so he keeps his face impassive and disinterested as he tells her he’s meeting someone. She gestures coolly for him to go on in, and he walks through, scanning the tables for the familiar fall of glossy black hair. He smiles when he sees her, she’s sitting near the window, her back towards him. As he watches, she looks over her shoulder until her face is in profile, and his breath catches in his throat for just a minute.

She’s so gorgeous. He wonders if he’s ever going to stop feeling like someone is sitting on him every time he looks at her, if it’s ever going to stop being nervous and jittery when he’s walking towards her. It’s been almost two months of being together all the time and it hasn’t lessened at all. It might have actually gotten worse. It’s like everything he knew to be true about himself and dating went right out the window when she scoffed at him and called him pretty boy.

After a second, she looks back down to her book on the table, and he approaches without her noticing. She’s engrossed, so he grins and takes the chance to startle her by wrapping his arms around her and kissing her cheek. Rae jumps, gives a little shriek, and he chuckles with his lips pressed against her skin.

“Dickhead!” She grunts as he walks around the little table and pulls out his chair, slipping the strap from his bag over his shoulder. He grins at her narrowed eyes and pursed lips, propping his elbow on the table. That’s when he notices it- a red envelope and a box of conversation hearts resting on his plate.

“What’s this?” He asks, beaming an incredulous and delighted smile at her. She blushes and looks down, twists her lips to hide her smile.

“Dunno.” She says, then looks up at him from under her lashes. His heart starts to beat faster, harder, trying to jump out of his chest and spell it all out for her. I. Thump. Love. Thump. You. Thump thump thump.

He shakes his head, trying to dispel the romantic haze that’s clouding his vision. He loves her so much right now that it actually hurts. His chest is throbbing with how badly he wants to tell her. He settles for a chuckle and a teasing “I thought you hated Valentine’s day.”

“I do!” She protests, eyes wide and cheeks pink. He loves that she’s flustered. He loves that she secretly likes all of this. He loves that she pretends she doesn’t. He loves everything about this moment, everything about her. He presses his grinning lips together, trying to keep it all in. “I totally hate it. But…” She’s fumbling for words, fingers prodding her fork and eyes not meeting his. “I dunno. You obviously love it, and I love you, so…”

She gestures vaguely in the direction of his plate, obviously not noticing that she’s just said it, just told him she loves him for the first time. His heart is throbbing now, his blood pounding in his ears. He can feel the crazy face he’s making, and he tries to reign it in since he doesn’t want to freak her out. Slowly, his wide eyes and open mouth grow into the biggest smile he’s ever had in his life. The kind of smile that transcends his mouth and takes over his whole body.

She loves him. She’s not gonna run. She loves him.

Rae still hasn’t looked up from toying with the silverware, so he takes a moment to drink her in, his mad grin softening a bit. She’s all dark hair and pale skin and rosy cheeks, and she just said it. Said it like it was a given, like of course she loves him. He doesn’t know what to say, what to do, where to go from here. She loves him, and it’s like the world has corrected its axis all of a sudden, when he hadn’t realized before that it was off. The world has lurched and straightened and it’s all new on the other side of I love you.

“Well…” He says after a minute, and she looks up at him from under her lashes once more. She laughs when she sees his manic grinning, and her shoulders loosen. He thinks she still hasn’t realized that she’s said it, but he heard it, so it’s true. It’s out there, she can’t take it back now. “Should I open it?”

“Go ahead.” He’s only barely got the card out of its envelope when he starts laughing. Rae frowns across the table at him, her flush deepening to crimson. “What? You think it’s stupid?”

“No, no.” He says, unable to keep the smile from his face. He fishes around in his bag for a moment and pulls out the card that he’d so painstakingly chosen for her. “Here.”

“For me?” Rae presses her lips together as she accepts the envelope. She closes her eyes for a second, eyelashes full against her rosy cheeks. That sweet expression comes over her features again, and this time he knows its name. She’s clearly touched, and he marvels that she really thought he wouldn’t buy her a card for Valentine’s day.

“Open it.” He nudges his head in her direction and she gives him a soft, happy little smile as she tears the paper on the back. She too barely gets it from its sleeve before she starts laughing. Finn holds up the card she bought for him, runs a finger across the grooves in the fake embossed vinyl. “I guess I know you like it.”

Rae laughs and presses a hand to her lips, gives him a goofy grin while shakes her head. “What are there, like a million cards in the world, and we both chose the same one?”

“You do rock my world, girl.” He says with a chuckle. He’s so fucking happy, he doesn’t even know what to do with himself. Rae barks a laugh and they just smile at each other for a minute, lost in the perfection of the moment, lost in each other. Then, by some sort of silent mutual agreement, they both look down to read the message the other has written in the card they both chose.

Finnley, it reads in Rae’s generous scrawl, I’ve always hated Valentine’s Day, but with you it’s not so bad. Thank you for always making everything better than it was before. I’m crazy about you, pretty boy. XOXO, Rae

He holds the card to his chest for the barest second, as if he can somehow store her words inside himself. When he looks up at her, she’s looking down at her card with a big, teary smile. He rubs at his left ear, anxious and a bit embarrassed about how sentimental his message is. Finally, she meets his questioning eyes, that soft sweetness painted all over her again, love written across every millimeter of her face.

“Thank you,” she whispers, voice gruff with emotion. “This is the best Valentine I’ve ever had.”

He laughs at that; even in her tender moments, she’s still so cheeky and adorable. God, he can’t get enough of this girl. They sit in silence again, grinning at each other in a stupid love struck fashion, until he remembers the flowers still in his bag. He reaches down and pulls them out, hands them across the table and rubs his neck as she accepts them, bashful once more at his sentimentality.

“Oh, uh, these are for you, too.” He says, shrugging. “I… uh, I thought… they reminded me of you. Bright and cheerful and uh… pretty.”

“Aww, Finnley…” Rae’s grinning and laughing, and he gives her an affected scowl. “You’d make a girl change her mind, you know. About Valentine’s Day.”

He rolls his eyes and shakes his head through his rueful laughter. “C’mere, girl.”

“What?” She asks, looking around the restaurant questioningly.

“C’mere.” He repeats, pushing back his chair a little and gesturing to his lap. Rae looks around again, blushes scarlet, but stands and walks around the table. She hesitates in front of him, and he grabs her around the waist and pulls her into his lap, wrapping his arms around her. She’s stiff for a second, but he squeezes her tightly and soon he feels her posture loosen. She bends her head and nuzzles her face against his neck, and Finn smiles and presses a kiss to her hair.

“Rae.” He murmurs, and she lifts her head to raise her bashful eyes to his. He rubs her nose with his, kisses her softly but briefly. She’s smiling when he pulls back. He reaches up to cup her cheek, running his thumb across her skin gently. Her smile fades, but her eyes grow tender and warm as he holds her gaze. “Happy Valentine’s Day.”

Rae wrinkles her nose, lips twisting, and he smiles and kisses her again, then tugs her into an embrace. As she rests her head against his, he rubs his face against her hair and whispers into her ear. “I love you.”

She pulls back with a soft gasp, eyes wide and wondering. She stares at him for a minute, and he can’t quite determine what she’s thinking from her expression. He has a second of panic, a second where he relives the familiar fear that she’s going to run, but then she’s smiling more brightly that he’s ever seen before. She’s radiant, glowing, that sweet tender expression illuminated brilliantly. And then she’s kissing him like he’s oxygen, like he’s everything she could ever need. He can taste the love in her lips, taste the words that they’ve finally offered between them, the words that have built a bridge between her heart and his.

Rae leans back, pressing a couple of soft pecks against his lips, as if she can’t get enough. She puts one hand on his neck, the other on his shoulder and looks into his eyes. She’s beaming, grinning so hugely that he feels an answering smile curve his lips.

“I love you, Finn.” She says, and he steals a quick kiss.

“I know.” He laughs, and Rae frowns, her lips puffed out in an adorable little pout. “You just said it a minute ago.”

“I did not!” She protests, starting to rise from his lap. He keeps his arm wrapped tight around her waist and gives her a sympathetic smile, wrinkles his nose.

“You said, ‘I hate Valentine’s but you love it, and I love you.’” He studies her face, watches as the light clicks on in her head and her expression turns aghast. Her eyes get wide and her mouth pops open in a little ‘o.’ It’s so cute he can hardly stand it, so he leans in and kisses the corner of her mouth, keeping his lips against her cheek until he feels it lift in a smile.

“Holy fuck, I did!” She mutters, shaking her head. She leans back and stares at him, searching for something, he’s not sure what. She closes her eyes, shakes her head, and her cheeks get bright red. “I can’t believe I said it first! And I didn’t even realize. I was so determined not to say it yet!”

He laughs, awed once more by how similar they are. He’s been trying so hard all this time to keep it bottled up, when she’s been doing the same thing. He runs his thumb over the color warming her skin. She’s so flustered, so embarrassed and he kind of enjoys it, like it’s retribution for his own embarrassment with the card choosing fiasco. But also, he just wants her to be happy, to feel as absolutely overwhelmed with joy as he is at the moment, so he decides to give her one more Valentine’s gift.

“Me too. I been trying to hold it in for weeks, girl! I’m relieved you said it today, cause if you hadn’t, I probably would have.”

Rae’s lashes flutter against her cheeks once more as she lowers her eyes coyly. He traces the curve of her cheekbone and she tilts forward to kiss his hand as it gets closer to her lips. She shakes her head and rolls her eyes, but the movement is soft and minimal. Everything about her just now is tender and gentle and easy. “Well of course I’d go and spoil it then. If only I could have waited a few hours, you woulda said it first.”

“Does it matter who says it first?” He asks, voice a near whisper as he leans in closer and closer. He can’t seem to stay away. He has to kiss her. “I love you.”

Rae shakes her head, and she seems to be feeling that same compulsion, as she’s breathless and leaning in, eyes focused on his lips. He watches as her tongue darts out to moisten her bottom lip, and as if it’s a signal, he closes the distance between them. He presses his lips against hers, allows his arms to tighten around her waist and in her hair. Rae moans softly when his tongue glides against hers, and he shifts his hips beneath her.

“Ah-hum.” A loud voice tones next to them, and Finn pulls out of the kiss and turns his head to find the waiter standing beside their table. It’s an older man, his Dad’s age maybe, and he’s giving them an indulgent grin. “Would the two of you like more time, perhaps?”

Rae giggles and presses her face into his neck, and Finn shoots the waiter a cocky smile. “Actually, I don’t think we’re going to stay. If that’s alright?”

The man laughs and nods. “Of course, sir. Have a nice Valentine’s Day, eh? Make it a good one.”

“Oh, I plan to.” He says, and Rae giggles again as she kisses his neck. He smoothes a hand down her back. “You don’t really need to go to class this afternoon, do you?”


End file.
